Newbie Alert

[Grez]

Hi...

I'm VERY new to the whole of the Linux lark and I'm hoping to pick up some tips and tricks from you all.

I'm very impressed at the mo with Hardy Heron 8.04 (I've only had it installed an hour, though!)

So please be gentle with me and if I ask any stupid questions, I apologise in advance!

[Daveski]

Welcome to Ubuntu.

[smartboyathome]

Hi...

I'm VERY new to the whole of the Linux lark and I'm hoping to pick up some tips and tricks from you all.

I'm very impressed at the mo with Hardy Heron 8.04 (I've only had it installed an hour, though!)

So please be gentle with me and if I ask any stupid questions, I apologise in advance!

Don't be ashamed, we all were (or are still) new to Linux at one point, so we know it can feel strange at first. Just ask when you have trouble, don't be afraid to.

[schauerlich]

Don't be ashamed, we all were (or are still) new to Linux at one point, so we know it can feel strange at first. Just ask when you have trouble, don't be afraid to.

I was a guru from birth.

[Achetar]

Hmm. Considering you just joined a year ago, I would hold off on guruship.

(I know this isn't the only linux forum out there, but from my experience it is the most active)

[schauerlich]

Hmm. Considering you just joined a year ago, I would hold off on guruship.

(I know this isn't the only linux forum out there, but from my experience it is the most active)

Before I joined, I was rewriting Ubuntu from scratch, so I had no need for this mainstream support forum. It was only until someone showed me cowsay that I decided normal ubuntu was for me.

[pfc369]

new to linux and just join. i am using xp now on my desktop. can i install ubuntu and try out without removing xp. thanks

[Daveski]

new to linux and just join. i am using xp now on my desktop. can i install ubuntu and try out without removing xp. thanks

You can just boot from the Live CD and try it without making ANY changes to your machine. Bit slow running from CD though.

You can run an Open Source virtual PC like VirtualBox for Windows and install Ubuntu in there. Nice and safe - again a little slow and you will not get good 3D graphics performance etc.

There is an installation from within Windows which creates a virtual hard disk (as a big file in Windows) which you can then boot to.

Finally you can use the installer to shrink your Windows partition and dual boot with Ubuntu on a proper partition - be careful during the resizing and creating of the Linux partition that you do not accidentally destroy your Windows data (unlikely, but there are lots of posts where people have managed this). As always, you should have a backup of all your data...

[Grez]

new to linux and just join. i am using xp now on my desktop. can i install ubuntu and try out without removing xp. thanks

Hi

I downloaded the Live disk image from

http://www.ubuntu.com/

Click on "download" and "desktop edition" and pick the 64-bit version if you have a 64 bit machine.

It downloads a .iso disk image, which you can then burn to CD rom using Nero. (The download took me about 90 mins on a 1Mb/s broadband connection).

You can then use the CD ROM to boot your machine and it will start up using Linux. I was very impressed at how well it worked for me last night and so did the full install this afternoon.

I got this machine 3 weeks ago with Vista pre-installed. It popped, crackled, froze, re-booted and generally pigged about to some fine order for the first day or so. In fact, I was on the verge of taking it back. Just booting up Vista with nothing else installed took about 2 minutes of HDD time after the desktop appeared, and there's lots of unknown HDD access when you're doing very little with the machine.

Not so with Ubuntu. I've been very impressed by the speed and stability of the thing, as well as the number of packages that are freely available for it.

I'm currently dual-booting but....

[K7522]

Hi...

I'm VERY new to the whole of the Linux lark and I'm hoping to pick up some tips and tricks from you all.

I'm very impressed at the mo with Hardy Heron 8.04 (I've only had it installed an hour, though!)

So please be gentle with me and if I ask any stupid questions, I apologise in advance!

Welcome to Ubuntu.

Don't run anything as root that you don't have to.

System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager

This is your friend! Files here work and install proper and easily.

System -> Administration -> Software Sources

This will allow you to add additional repos, there are even more out there but these will cover most everything you'll need.

Compiz-Fusion is FUN, and adds a great deal of interesting desktop functions and pretties that you just can't get in $hitdows. I used the how-to here, http://www.howtoforge.com/compiz-fusion-ubuntu-8.04-nvidia-geforce-fx-5200-p2 and it worked perfect.

Any specific questions please ask!

[Barrucadu]

Welcome to Linux - dive right in and have fun. The terminal is your friend :)

[RiceMonster]

Welcome to Linux. Don't be afraid of different distributions, desktop environments and window managers. If you're like me, you'll love having so many available :). For the first while though, I recommend you stick with Ubuntu until you become comfortable with Linux. It's a great place to start.

[PCessna]

Now, No worrys about asking questions, You can ask away, I've created over a dozen threads because I'm still a bit nuublar (lol), and I get thanks you for helping others aswell, It's all good here, just behave and you'll be find no matter what :P

[BigSilly]

Same here. I've been using Linux exclusively now for nearly two years, and I'm still learning all the time. I still very much consider myself the newcomer. There's always someone here who can help though. Have fun with Ubuntu! :)

[Grez]

Thanks for the warm welcome guys. :)

If you don't want to hear what led me here then stop reading now. However, the story goes like this:


Monday 28 July, late.
I switch off the computer, kiss the mouse goodnight and toddle off to bed.

Tuesday 29 July, morning.
My wife asks me to check some train times on t'internet. I go to switch on the computer. Not a peep. Stone dead. I try the usual checks. Nothing. Dead as the proverbial dodo. There had been a thunderstorm in the night. The air of inevitability kicks in. it's my 2nd computer in 3 years to die the death! They must see me coming!

Monday 4th August
After a week of pigging around to no avail, I decide that a bargain computer is the order of the day. I pick up the aforementioned machine, along with a SATA HDD caddy for the drive out of the dead one. Get the new computer home. It has Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed. It spends about an hour setting up the system, messing around, tying itself in knots with my hardware (the serial graphics tablet is STILL disconnected!), freezing, rebooting and then decides to download about 50 updates from the internet. (Fortunately the router installed without a hitch). By 10pm, I am seriously considering taking the thing back. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I install the drive in the caddy, plug it into the machine, up comes the drive in Explorer, I click on the folders ready to get my files back, to find that Vista, bless it, won't let me in. Well actually it WILL let me in, but only if I confirm every subsequent file/folder click 4 times each! Aaaaaaaaaargh!

Now I hold up my hands and say "I should have backed up more often!" But what sort of security system eventually lets you get to files in this way? "Keep out" I could have coped with (not what I want but secure). "Access all areas" (as you're an administrator) I could also have coped with. But this. It's neither use nor ornament.

Tuesday 5th August
The machine had now settled into a relatively stable state. It did freeze while I was trying to get at my files off the caddy HDD leaving me with my heart in my mouth wondering just what it was corrupting. However, I then start "getting used to" some of Vista's quirks. Whenever I tried to run an installation program, not only does it always ask you for confirmation, but it was a gem at sending the screen blank for a second or two; just long enough to make you think it's crashed and is about to reboot. It downloaded and installed more updates, requiring further reboots but I was just about getting to a tolerant state with it. Ivestigations on the internet showed me that I was not the only person to have the file access problems, but because it's a Vista Home package, you can't turn the "protection" off automatically. And no, I didn't want to upgrade to a Business Version thank you.

The rest of the week, I had bigger fish to fry, including a rather excellent festival to go to, so hostilities resumed last Tuesday.

Tuesday 12 August, evening
I had borrowed the Church Laptop, replete with Windows XP service pack 3. Connected the caddy drive into the port. Got up the folders. Clicked. "Access denied - you do not have the required permissions." Aaaaaargh!

Wednesday 13 August, afternoon
Stumbled across April copy of Personal Computer World mag. Inside it extols the virtues of sysresccd.ord, a live cd linux distribution with a host of file repair and rescue tools on it. Thought about it and looked it up on t'internet. Seems to be OK if a little complicated.

Thursday 14 August, evening
Downloaded sysresccd.org and burnt to CD ROM. Booted ok. A bit unsure about mounting drives and stuff, but after a bit of playing, got it to read the drive and access a couple of files that Windows had locked me out of. The problem was what to back them up on to. Ideally it would be DVD, but of course, there was an operating system in the DVD drive! No play on Friday - at a Wedding!

Saturday 16 August
Mulling over what to do ith the linux recovery, and then had an idea. My wife's Uncle dual boots a PC with Ubuntu and XP (NTFS formatted). So why not try using Ubuntu? I downloaded the disk image, and burnt it to CD. It booted, found everything, seemed quite fast for a CD operating system, and, lo and behold, gave me access to my missing documents.

Sunday 17th August, mid-afternoon
Finally bit the bullet, backed up my few new files, and decided to do a full Ubuntu install. I got a bit scared when the partitioner was in operation as the status bar seemed stuck on Zero, but it went through very smoothly. It downloaded its updates and installed them with little fuss, only needing to reboot once - at the end! Safely rescued all my files from the caddy drive and my emails and address book from Thunderbird (which are now safely contained in evolution Mail!)

So as you can see, I was pretty much forced into using this, but I'm very impressed. It runs faster than Vista, there's no hanging round waiting for the HDD to stop rattling at boot up, and I'm very impressed by the lack of worrying seemingly unwarranted hard drive access that has been associated with Windows since 95 came on the scene. I must say, since I installed this, I've not had much desire to go back into Vista.

Can't wait to get it to do more!

[Achetar]

Before I joined, I was rewriting Ubuntu from scratch, so I had no need for this mainstream support forum. It was only until someone showed me cowsay that I decided normal ubuntu was for me.
My apologies.

[Lostincyberspace]

wow I thought my birthday (16th) was a good day I just had no Idea how good.

I am still fairly new, though I would not call my self new now since I have been using it extensively using it for well over a year, I would probably call my self an intermediate able to understand the gurus (mostly) but still act like a newb some times.